The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-05-12
Basic Steel Making.

Of the making of steel under the basic pre-
cess:
We were honored while here by th
presence of Mr.. Sidney G. Thomas and hi
, sister, who came down from London an(
spent the day with us. Mr.. Thomas is tn
young chemist who, in conjunction will
his cousin, Mr.. Gilchrist, would not accep
the dictum of the authorities that phos
phorus, that fend Of STEEL manufacturers
: cannot be expelled from iron ores at higf
temperature. They Set to work over {
siDal toy pot, which deserves to rank will
Watts in composition. They used an al
bum inosed tea-kettle to see whether the
scientific world had not Numbered.
i Let me premise that the, presence OF
phosphorus in pig iron to the extent Of
more than about oGe.tenth of per cent
is fatal to the production of good steel by
the Bessemer or open earth process. Do
what you will. this troublesome substance
4 persists in remaining with the iron. II
there be phosphorus in the iron stone you
smelt, every atom of it will be found in
resulting iron; and If there be any IN the
| limestone, or the coke or coal used, every
atom of it also will find its way into the
iron.
1t is essential, therefore, that iron stone
should be found practically free from phos-
phorus; but, unfortunately, such ore is
scarce, and therefore expensive. The great
iron stone deposits Of England are full of
the enemy: so are those of America; hence
! both countries depend largely upon ores
which have to be transported from Spain
and other countries. One authority esti-
mates that if all the high phosphorus ores
| in Britain could be made as valuable as
those free from the Objectionable ingre-
dent, the saving per annum would go far
to pay the interest upon the rational debt.
Many have been the attempts to. devise
some tempting bait to coax this Gend to
forego his strange affinity for iron and unite
| with some other element; but no, his sa-
tanic majesty would cling to the metal.
Messrs. Thomas & Gilchrist, in studying
some highly creditable experiments made
by my friend Lothian Bell, Esq, flor he
was upon the right track, discovered an
overs sight which seemed to qualify the
results which he reached and to render his
experiments inconclusive. 1t was posi-
bic. they thought, that this failure might
have resulted from the flend not being kept
| out when he was out; SO they went quietly
to work with their toy pot, and Eureka
Their charm had not only exercised the
liend, but they had discovered how to lead
him away from the molten metal into the
refuse and shut the door on him there.
Here was q triumph, indeed! Ifancy they
neither ate nor slept till repeated expert
ments proved that the true charm had been
found at last.
Mr. E.W indsor Richards, the broad man.
ager of the largest mandatory of iron and
steel in the world, was soon acquainted by
them with the discovery. He tried it upon
a large scale and announced the end of
King Phosphorus; but he dies hard. This
was some years ago; but / read the good
news few minutes after had landed at
Naples from the East, on my way round
Giles had yet to be surmounted. but now
every ton of steel manufactured at Mr..
Richards great works is made from iron
stone, which few years ago was counted
worthless for steel. Enough iron stone
can be had for three dollars to make ton
of pig iron suitable for steel rails The
same amount of low phosphorus stone at
Pittsburgh cost last year sixteen dollars,
and yet there are intelligent people who do
not understand why we cannot make rails
as cheap as the English.
wonder if could explain to the gen
eral reader how Messrs. Thomas & Gill
christ succeeded. 1t always seems to me
Ikea fairy Tale. l will try In making
steel, ten tons of molten pig iron is run
into big pot called a converter, and hun
dreds of jets of air are clown up through
the mass to burn out the silica and carbon,
and finally to make it steel. Now phos-
phOrus has greater affinity for lime than
for iron when it reaches certain temper
ature; and when the air blast brings the
m ass to the required heat, the million par
ticles of phosphorus. like so many tiny ants
disturbed, run hitler and thither, quite
ready to leave the iron for the lime. These
clever young men first put lot of lime in
the bottom of the pot as bait, and into this
fly the ants perfectly delighted with their
new home. The lime and Stag float to the
top and are drawn off. but mark you, let
the temperature fall and the temperature
gets too cold to suit these salamanders. al
though the temperature may be over 1000
degrees, hot enough to melt bar of steel
in a moment if thrown into the pot. No,
they must have $500 degrees in the lime
OF they will rush back to the metal.
lut here lays difficulty: $500 degrees
is so very hot that no ordinary pot lining
will stand it, and of course the iron pot
itself will not last moment. If canister
or friedrich is used it just crumbles away.
and besides this, the plaquey particles of
phosphorus will rush into it and tear it to
PIECES. The great point is to get {, basic
lining; that is, one free from silica. This
has at last been accomplished, and now the
basic process is destined to revolutionize
the manufacture of steel, for out of the
poorest ores, and even out of puddle cinder,
steel or iron much purer than any now
made for rails or bridges can be obtained,
and the two young chemists, patentees OF
the Thomas Gilchrist process, take their
rank in the domain of metallurgy with
Cort, Nelson, Bessemer and Siemens.
These young men have done more for Eng
lands greatness than all her kings and
queens and aristocracy put together.
Ii was this pale, Gladstonian- looking
youth we had with US for the day and for
our Sunday evening dinner at Windsor.
He wears 70 title-he is too sound Radi-
Cal and too sensible man to change the
mime his honored father gave him-but,
nevertheless, we felt we had one of the
great men OF our generation as our guest.
If it be true, as it is, that he who causes
two blades Of grass to grow where but che
grew before is a benefactor to his race,
what is the magician who takes from the
bowels of the earth ton of dross and trans.
forms it into steel before our eys-stTikes
with his enchanted wand a hundred mines